Related
It look like over sharpening of photo in strong sunlight. Anyone else feel the same?
Yes. In every situation the sharpening is excessive and ruins many photos. The only way to get rid of it is to shoot in 40mp mode but then you can't zoom
You can reduce sharpening in editing after the fact on pretty much any decent editor. Snapseed mobile, Lightroom or photoshop on PC.
It very rarely damages photos. The outcry is a little over the top.
In bright sunshine 40mp is probably the best way to shoot anyway.
Jonathan-H said:
You can reduce sharpening in editing after the fact on pretty much any decent editor. Snapseed mobile, Lightroom or photoshop on PC.
It very rarely damages photos. The outcry is a little over the top.
In bright sunshine 40mp is probably the best way to shoot anyway.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The whole point of sharpening in P20 Pro is that it simply destroys data. There is no way to get it back in software, it just isn't there. This is a huge problem
I am considering to go back to my S9+ as P20 pro is far too much over sharpening.
I hope they will do something to the camera software before I make the change
dont expect anything like it from huawei, use another camera app
possible solution?
I find that using a zoom of 2.9x with 10mb auto mode helps with avoidance of over sharpening. With the same scene, the 2.9x zoom looks more natural when viewing at 100% pixel level:
At 2.9x zoom
https:// ibb.co/ bQtRBT
At 3.0x zoom
https:// ibb.co/ niGk5o
What do you think?
Hmm, having trouble with links not showing up... Please delete the spaces
photoxd said:
I find that using a zoom of 2.9x with 10mb auto mode helps with avoidance of over sharpening. With the same scene, the 2.9x zoom looks more natural when viewing at 100% pixel level:
At 2.9x zoom
https:// ibb.co/ bQtRBT
At 3.0x zoom
https:// ibb.co/ niGk5o
What do you think?
Hmm, having trouble with links not showing up... Please delete the spaces
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I find it works even better at 3x zoom if you use the lowest resolution.
Halfspark said:
I find it works even better at 3x zoom if you use the lowest resolution.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I checked the setting, there are other resolution options at 7MB, but they are of different dimensions (ie. 1:1 and 3:2), so they are really more of a crop of the same resolution rather than a different resolution.
I had the same problems with the Mate 10 Pro. The image processing was so bad that I finally decided to sell it and buy something else. I could not stand the poor quality of the pictures. Oil paint effect, lack of details even at 10-20% crop. Not acceptable for such an expensive device. I remember the P9 having NONE of these problems.
I have this problem and I figured out the fixes. Huawei users have two options to take photos where the auto sharpening ruins your photos. 1) shoot pro mode at max resolution. or 2) Shoot in aperture mode.
Hi everybody,
Anyone else here having the same issue
I think there are some issues with software regarding image colors.. Resolution and focus are gr8 but the images sometimes looks washed out(specially front cam) and some times looks so sharpened
This issue is confirmed after i saw mkbhd camera blind test
Can we open a ticket with customer support regarding this issue?
I'am so confused about that issue.. the camera hardware is gr8 by the way.. And the night images specially are gr8
Apparently the front facing camera is improved in future updates. As for being washed out, I think this is because the camera is overexposing slightly.
As for the over sharpening, if you install snapseed from the play store you can reduce the detail which effectively reduces the over sharpening.
I'd rather have a slightly sharper image I can reduce the sharpness, than something from the S9 for example which is not sharp enough.
It's kind of like having better low light capability than the S9, with sharper images than the Pixel 2. The only thing the Pixel 2 does better is takes pictures of is moving flowers and selfies.
Hi guys..
I have discovered an alternative camera app that solves the overexposure/soft images of the native camera app.
Image 1 - Taken with the CameraMX app.
Image 2 - Taken with Native p20 pro cam
As you can see, there is a noticeable quality difference in terms of contrast, details, color temperature and saturation. Personally, i like Image 1 better
I'm on update 128 and the front camera still overexposed.
It's not over exposed, the white balance is more accurate.
Sent from my CLT-L29 using Tapatalk
I wanna ask how can redmi note 7 have 48mp camera but snapdragon 660 only can afford until 25mp
It's fake 48mp which made by ai algorithm, you need to wait for pro version if you want the real 48mp.
But redmi 7 pro maybe use snapdragon 710 and still snapdragon 710 cant afford for 48mp
Kent Nathanael said:
I wanna ask how can redmi note 7 have 48mp camera but snapdragon 660 only can afford until 25mp
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Probably it uses a custom ISP from sony (IMX 586) and not using the integrated one in the SoC
Kent Nathanael said:
I wanna ask how can redmi note 7 have 48mp camera but snapdragon 660 only can afford until 25mp
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What the Samsung's sensor do, it's they stick 4 tiny pixels into one big pixel, for brightness in the images, actually there is a 12mpx camera but the result it's from a 48mpx resolution. You can look into it.
It's NOT a fake 48 mp camera. Let me explain,
The camera has physical 48million pixels , same as Sony imx586(used in redmi note 7 pro).
But let's see what's the catch about 12mp thing.
So as i said earlier, SAMSUNG GM1 SENSOR(used in redmi note 7) actually has physical 48million pixels.
What it does is, it treats every 4 pixels as 1 bigger one. So that means when we have 48(million) pixels. And 4 pixels will be bind together and made 1.
Result is we get 12(million) pixels in resulting pic.
Now this is done to get more bright images, so that each Pixel of image can get more light.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prJnWBNFQnY
48MP Camera on Redmi Note 7 explained by C4ETech
it's the same trick used with Xiaomi's latest 20MP or 24MP front facing sensors. it combines 4 pixels into 1 bigger pixel (this is called pixel binning). for example: if you install a custom ROM on the Poco (which has a 20MP front facing camera), it will register as only 5MP, but in reality, you actually capture 20MP, combined into a 5MP picture, this tech helps with low light and creating brighter images.
so basically: the SoC registers the sensor as 12MP, but its truly 48MP.
Kent Nathanael said:
I wanna ask how can redmi note 7 have 48mp camera but snapdragon 660 only can afford until 25mp
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) 25mp is for single camera not for dual
2)It can't, the camera is just an interpolated version of a 12mp sensor thats all. Its just an edit
sssaini007 said:
It's NOT a fake 48 mp camera. Let me explain,
The camera has physical 48million pixels , same as Sony imx586(used in redmi note 7 pro).
But let's see what's the catch about 12mp thing.
So as i said earlier, SAMSUNG GM1 SENSOR(used in redmi note 7) actually has physical 48million pixels.
What it does is, it treats every 4 pixels as 1 bigger one. So that means when we have 48(million) pixels. And 4 pixels will be bind together and made 1.
Result is we get 12(million) pixels in resulting pic.
Now this is done to get more bright images, so that each Pixel of image can get more light.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yah i also think like you but some youtuber in my country they explanted that redmi note 7 would has a small cache to process images
As long as i can take great low light photos i am ok with it.
cwr250 said:
It's fake 48mp which made by ai algorithm, you need to wait for pro version if you want the real 48mp.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That sounds like ?️
Processor
Redminote 7 PRO wil be released with Snapdragon 675 Soc
majidamiri15300 said:
it's the same trick used with Xiaomi's latest 20MP or 24MP front facing sensors. it combines 4 pixels into 1 bigger pixel (this is called pixel binning). for example: if you install a custom ROM on the Poco (which has a 20MP front facing camera), it will register as only 5MP, but in reality, you actually capture 20MP, combined into a 5MP picture, this tech helps with low light and creating brighter images.
so basically: the SoC registers the sensor as 12MP, but its truly 48MP.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think this is fully true
Poco video selfie is just so dark like no native binning at all. This is different to the big pixel like on mi5.
support
harysviewty said:
I don't think this is fully true
Poco video selfie is just so dark like no binning at all. This is different to the big pixel like on mi5.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think there is a phone currently that does pixel binning in video, now it's just done in photo.
Binning adds the the brightness of 4 pixels and merge then into a bigger number.
(example: 4 pixels have brightness values of 3,4,5,3 the binned number is 15(3+4+5+3), meaning that pixel is brighter, if it were averaged, it would have had a value of 3.75 ((3+4+5+3)/4) and it's not bigger than the original pixels values, meaning no brightness improvement)
(the real process of binning pixels is actually much more complicated, and simple addition may not be done)
While in video the brightness of individual is averaged(not binned) with neighbouring pixels to make 30 1080p (2.1 Mp) photos per second.
If someone understands the process of real pixel binning, then correct me if i am wrong.
JoraForever said:
I don't think there is a phone currently that does pixel binning in video, now it's just done in photo.
Binning adds the the brightness of 4 pixels and merge then into a bigger number.
(example: 4 pixels have brightness values of 3,4,5,3 the binned number is 15(3+4+5+3), meaning that pixel is brighter, if it were averaged, it would have had a value of 3.75 ((3+4+5+3)/4) and it's not bigger than the original pixels values, meaning no brightness improvement)
(the real process of binning pixels is actually much more complicated, and simple addition may not be done)
While in video the brightness of individual is averaged(not binned) with neighbouring pixels to make 30 1080p (2.1 Mp) photos per second.
If someone understands the process of real pixel binning, then correct me if i am wrong.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lg v30 V35 g7 v40 have super bright mode video, 2x2 4in1 pixel binning in video (4K becoming full HD), + there's adaptive fps for lowlight
HTC has multiframe subsampling processing for lowlight noiseless video
Sony has dual camera sensor fusion (normal & bw) for super high iso lowlight video
No, you're wrong
Binning isn't always about 1+2+3+4= 10, it can also be like 1+2+3+4=10 :4= 2.5 (PureView) or 1+4+4+5=4 or 1+2+3+4=1/2/3/4 (real time hdr)
And there's no averaging in lower resolution normal video processing, it's not even using all the pixels of the full sensor. That's why most flagship use 12mp 4:3 (video is cropped 16:9 8mp 4k), no wasted resolution
harysviewty said:
Lg v30 V35 g7 v40 have super bright mode video, 2x2 4in1 pixel binning in video (4K becoming full HD), + there's adaptive fps for lowlight
HTC has multiframe subsampling processing for lowlight noiseless video
Sony has dual camera sensor fusion (normal & bw) for super high iso lowlight video
No, you're wrong
Binning isn't always about 1+2+3+4= 10, it can also be like 1+2+3+4=10 :4= 2.5 (PureView) or 1+4+4+5=4 or 1+2+3+4=1/2/3/4 (real time hdr)
And there's no averaging in lower resolution normal video processing, it's not even using all the pixels of the full sensor. That's why most flagship use 12mp 4:3 (video is cropped 16:9 8mp 4k), no wasted resolution
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did say: "the real process of binning pixels is actually much more complicated, and simple addition may not be done" i was simplifying the technical stuff. Pixel binning is also done by averaging values, though not benefiting brightness but noise reduction.
In video the camera actually sends full frame raw data to the isp, which manipulates the raw sensor data by cropping and subsampling (technically the same as binning by averaging) and then dumping that data on flash memory as a video format.
Most modern phones use subsampling by averaging because it reduces noise.
Many phones have issues with noise while filming in 4k in low light condition because the noise filtering applied to videos must be fast and efficient, where as photo noise filtering is done with much more processing.
The LG super bright video mode is most likely some kind of software trickery that forces 1080p resolution because subsampling reduces noise, and does one of two things either increase iso or increase brightness/contrast in post processing.
JoraForever said:
I did say: "the real process of binning pixels is actually much more complicated, and simple addition may not be done" i was simplifying the technical stuff. Pixel binning is also done by averaging values, though not benefiting brightness but noise reduction.
In video the camera actually sends full frame raw data to the isp, which manipulates the raw sensor data by cropping and subsampling (technically the same as binning by averaging) and then dumping that data on flash memory as a video format.
Most modern phones use subsampling by averaging because it reduces noise.
Many phones have issues with noise while filming in 4k in low light condition because the noise filtering applied to videos must be fast and efficient, where as photo noise filtering is done with much more processing.
The LG super bright video mode is most likely some kind of software trickery that forces 1080p resolution because subsampling reduces noise, and does one of two things either increase iso or increase brightness/contrast in post processing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
https://en.ids-imaging.com/techtipps-detail/en_techtip-binning-subsampling-or-scaler.html
I believe subsampling =/= averaging
That's why lowlight video from 40mp Huawei mate 20 pro sucks so bad
Lg bright mode is a real time processing, 15-24fps, ev +1 stop (higher than max iso on auto /manual mode), 1/4 max resolution,
I've been wanting to ask this question since, Xiaomi lies a lot when it comes to phone specs. Well, it's cheap, so we can't complain.
This thread explores the photo quality possibilities of the Z8. I'll post occasional info and tests about the stock camera, comparisons with GCam mods, etc, with example pictures to illustrate my findings. I hope you'll find some of this useful and post examples of your own that we can learn from.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Latest posts
Nikon SLR vs Zenfone photo quality test, June 2023
Asus & GCam Night Shots, in-depth comparison
Brightening GCam to match the Asus Camera - 2
Brightening GCam to match the Asus camera
Asus vs GCam vs Nikon - DSLR quality from the Z8?
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Wichaya GCam V1.6
Wichaya has recently released an updated version of GCam, “GCam_8.1.101_Wichaya_V1.6”, that is now almost as good as the stock Asus camera.
The previous GCam version's shots were always too dark, lacked shadow detail and looked dull compared to the Asus stock camera's excellent pictures. With the latest V1.6 pictures are almost identical with the stock Asus camera, most of the time.
My only criticism of Asus shots is that they are over-sharpened. Foliage looks great but it can have an unnatural flattened appearance; fine textures can look like sand and coarser textures can be exaggerated too much. Unfortunately the Asus camera does not allow any adjustments.
GCam does not suffer from over-sharpening and the settings can be fine-tuned. Occasionally it will under expose and may not give as much shadow detail as the Asus shots, and the white balance can be a bit too warm, but overall the latest version is a fantastic improvement.
Many thanks to Wichaya for this upgrade!
Available here: https://www.celsoazevedo.com/files/android/google-camera/dev-wichaya/f/dl6/
I used the “Wichaya8.1_ZF8_V5.xml” with it from here: https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/working-gcam.4280045/page-8
I'll never understand why people think stock cam takes better pics than GCam. Whenever I take shots side by side, Gcam's always have more detail.
I wanted to test this latest GCam 1.6 with this V5 config file and Asus A12 .113 firmware stock camera. Just to see for myself, and well here are some pictures and details. It's like previously said, stock camera has a lot of sharpening added. It blows the fine details out and gives some edges a "halo effect". GCam without HDR was useless at least on this spot.
Overall, I like the Asus white balance a lot better, closer to reality like with my own eyeballs. GCam is much too cold. Is there a configuration setting that tunes the GCam WB? GCam HDR+ Enhanced catches in some cases a lot better detail, but takes some seconds to capture. HDR+ still has more detail, but also more noise and in my opinion worse white balance. Asus camera can oversharpen a lot and add halos around every edge. Denoise and sharpen blurs details.
https://imgur.com/a/cxgK8nj
edit: Jeez imgur destroys the pictures, maybe just download them.
Also the full pictures if someone wants to zoom, my photo editor might have processed the zooms a bit.
Jgruar said:
I wanted to test this latest GCam 1.6 with this V5 config file and Asus A12 .113 firmware stock camera. Just to see for myself, and well here are some pictures and details. It's like previously said, stock camera has a lot of sharpening added. It blows the fine details out and gives some edges a "halo effect". GCam without HDR was useless at least on this spot.
Overall, I like the Asus white balance a lot better, closer to reality like with my own eyeballs. GCam is much too cold. Is there a configuration setting that tunes the GCam WB? GCam HDR+ Enhanced catches in some cases a lot better detail, but takes some seconds to capture. HDR+ still has more detail, but also more noise and in my opinion worse white balance. Asus camera can oversharpen a lot and add halos around every edge. Denoise and sharpen blurs details.
https://imgur.com/a/cxgK8nj
edit: Jeez imgur destroys the pictures, maybe just download them.
Also the full pictures if someone wants to zoom, my photo editor might have processed the zooms a bit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for taking the trouble to explain and illustrate your findings comparing the Asus camera and Wichaya's latest GCam version. I also prefer the look of the Asus shots but dislike both how they over-sharpen some areas and smooth out other areas.
The Gcam shots on my Zenphone 8 generally look more natural (= not over-sharpened) but are often a bit too dark, and can also be a bit too warm. So there may be manufacturing variations that affect the white balance. The Asus shots also have a lot more shadow detail, which I prefer.
Unfortunately I haven't been able to find a combination of Ram Patcher setting that would bring the Gcam shots closer to how I'd like them to be. If Wichaya can advise how to increase shadow detail without affecting the highlghts I'd be grateful!
Yeah, would be really great if we could combine the good parts from both softwares. I don't know much about the GCam settings, if someone wants to share what we are able to change and how?
Tom100% said:
Thanks for taking the trouble to explain and illustrate your findings comparing the Asus camera and Wichaya's latest GCam version. I also prefer the look of the Asus shots but dislike both how they over-sharpen some areas and smooth out other areas.
The Gcam shots on my Zenphone 8 generally look more natural (= not over-sharpened) but are often a bit too dark, and can also be a bit too warm. So there may be manufacturing variations that affect the white balance. The Asus shots also have a lot more shadow detail, which I prefer.
Unfortunately I haven't been able to find a combination of Ram Patcher setting that would bring the Gcam shots closer to how I'd like them to be. If Wichaya can advise how to increase shadow detail without affecting the highlghts I'd be grateful!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Give this a look: https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/app-arnova8g2s-google-camera-port.3862448/post-84805697
MRDA1981 said:
Give this a look: https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/app-arnova8g2s-google-camera-port.3862448/post-84805697
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, it's certainly interesting and gives some insight into how complex changing the default settings can be (for Arnova8G2's GCam). It shows how to increase the exposure time - this would brighten both the shadows and the highlights.
I would like to increase only the shadow detail. This is the main difference between Wichaya's GCam and the Zenfone 8's stock camera which gives the shadows a welcome boost.
I did a quick test to see how the Zenfone 8 and Whchaya V1.6 GCam performed in Night mode.
All examples are cropped from 16MP files.
I took one shot in the normal camera mode, then in night mode, and an extra shot with the GCam’s RAW (DNG) mode to compare side by side.
The Asus camera’s normal mode always tries to smooth lightly textured areas and so has made the road and areas of soil look unnaturally smooth. The GCam normal shot (HDR+) records the textures faithfully and is more colourful but a little too bright. Both cameras blow out the bright lights at the front and side of the building.
The Asus Night shot is excellent as it holds all the textures, minimises the highlight blowouts and is quite sharp and well exposed. The GCam Night shot is quite good but a bit too bright. It’s more colourful, not quite as sharp as the Asus shot and the highlights are blown out.
So it appears as though the Asus Night mode gives the best result.
However, take a look at the enlarged cropped area of the “Asus-GCam Night modes” comparison. The Gcam Night shots is not as sharp as the Asus Night shot, but the Asus is way very over-sharpened, so much so that the light pebbledash texture of the wall is unnaturally exaggerated. The ideal, in my opinion would be somewhere in-between these two. The GCam DNG edited shot is almost ideal as it is sharp but does not over exaggerate textures, however the highlights are blown out...
To sum up I’d say that the Asus Night mode will give the best results, but can sometimes look a bit artificial depending on the range of textures involved.
Hello,
thank you for another comparison of image quality. At night the scenario from the day is repeated, the stock camera is oversharpened and the Gcam is unsharp with little detail. Is it possible to modify the Gcam in general to produce sharper images? This is a question more for the author @michelinoO
Dave.a said:
Hello,
thank you for another comparison of image quality. At night the scenario from the day is repeated, the stock camera is oversharpened and the Gcam is unsharp with little detail. Is it possible to modify the Gcam in general to produce sharper images? This is a question more for the author @michelinoO
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you look in Wichaya's GCam settings, Advanced, Ram Patcher you'll see setting to vary lots of parameters, including sharpness...
Asus vs GCam vs Nikon. DSLR quality from the Z8?
Modern smartphones cameras have tiny imaging sensors yet take amazingly good pictures. The Zenfone 8’s imaging sensor is only 7.5 x 5.5mm and is crammed with almost 64,000,000 light sensitive cells. It requires a serious amount of “computational photography” processing to create pictures that exceed the actual capability of the camera’s tiny sensor.
About 20 years ago I bought one of the first cellphones that had a built in camera, the Nokia 7650. The photos were only 640 x 480 pixels but looked good on the phones 176 x 208 pixels display! Todays phones take high quality HDR pictures that look good on large screens, so I thought it would be fun to compare a picture taken with my Zenphone 8 and Nikon DSLR. This has an 24MP sensor that’s 10x the size of the Z8’s.
Z8 compared to DSLR
The DSLR has fewer megapixels but they are larger and gather much more light which results in higher quality pictures without the need for the intense processing necessary in smartphone cameras.
I took all of the attached shots during a 10 minute period to try to keep the lighting reasonably consistent and used the Z8’s stock camera and the Wichaya V1.6 GCam mod to shoot both Jpegs and DNGs. I shot only RAW files (NEFs) with the Nikon.
I edited the Asus DNG, Gcam DNG and the Nikon RAW files to reasonably match the Asus stock camera’s Jpegs to give some consistence to the comparisons.
I expected the Nikon would come out on top, but I wasn’t certain because of the outstanding results I’ve had with the Z8. The Nikon won, but the edited 64MP Gcam DNG came a close second. In some ares the Asus and GCam shots were actually better than the Nikon’s.
Notes
I’ve kept the comparisons the same size - I was impressed that the 16MP Asus Jpg that even when enlarged to 130% compares quite well with the edited 24MP Nikon RAW seen at 100%. But enlarging the Asus Jpeg makes the usual over-sharpening of fine foliage details more obvious.
The 16MP GCam at 130% is also impressive but is under exposed and lacks shadow detail that’s usual for Wichaya’s GCam.
The large 64MP Asus and GCam Jpgs both lack shadow detail, but at least the Asus isn’t over-sharpened and is actually a bit softer than the GCam.
The best results were obtained with the edited GCam 64MP DNG. I’ve shown how it compares to the edited Nikon RAW in two comparative enlargements. A very impressive result.
Of course in different circumstances the results will vary, but this test in daylight with deep shade and sunlit highlights shows the astonishing capability that computational photography has with tiny sensors.
I did this test for my own amusement and out of my interest in computational photography, but for most normal snaps it probably makes little difference whether you prefer the normal 16MP Asus or GCam Jpegs.
Computational Photography and Mainstream Cameras
Mainstream camera manufacturers don’t seem in a hurry to introduce computational photography into their mirrorless cameras because this would narrow the gap between expensive professional and cheaper consumer equipment. But eventually they will have to give in and this could revolutionise the amateur and professional photography scene. Can’t wait!
Tom100% said:
I expected the Nikon would come out on top, but I wasn’t certain because of the outstanding results I’ve had with the Z8. The Nikon won, but the edited 64MP Gcam DNG came a close second. In some ares the Asus and GCam shots were actually better than the Nikon’s.
Notes
The best results were obtained with the edited GCam 64MP DNG. I’ve shown how it compares to the edited Nikon RAW in two comparative enlargements. A very impressive result.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just worked out that the 64MP Gcam that came a close 2nd to the Nikon DSLR was shot at 2 stops of under exposure (f1.8, 1/850sec, ISO 25 compared to f8, 1/60sec, ISO 100).
If the phone had taken only a single shot the image would have been very dark with mainly the highlights showing. Because of "computational photography" the phone takes a lot of the same shots quickly, perhaps 15 or more, which it then adds together using “image stacking” and uses several digital enhancement techniques to create the final HDR image.
The "Asus Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders" scored 131 in the DXOmark Photo category. It costs twice as much as the Zenphone 8 but has the same main Sony camera and Qualcomm chip as the Z8, which has a Photo score of only 120.
I guess only the computational photography software had been upgraded to give the superior Photo score. Hopefully Asus will share some of the magic sauce in future upgrades to my Z8.
Brightening GCam to match the Asus camera
Shots taken with the Asus camera have an edge over GCam shots, they have lots of "pop", are well exposed and have good shadow detail. GCam shots have a more natural appearance but are generally darker with less shadow detail.
The Asus camera over-sharpens and exaggerates textures such as foliage and grass, etc. This creates the "pop" effect that looks good on a smartphone but can look artificial and over-processed when viewed on a laptop or PC screen. Unfortunately Asus does not have any settings to reduce this effect so I’ve been experimenting with Wichaya’s GCam to try brighten its shadow detail to look more like the Asus shots.
In GCam’s Advanced section the Ram Patcher has settings to fine tune the processing. Some settings are self explanatory, such as Sharpness and Saturation, but it’s not clear how other adjustments affect the picture, either when used singly or in combination.
Adjusting Ram Patcher settings is not straightforward. There are hundreds of possible combinations, and some settings are predictable up to a certain point and then produce erratic results.
Other Mods sometimes explain what their setting do but use different terms that may not directly apply to Wichaya’s Ram Patcher. As far as I can tell there isn’t a setting that will directly increase shadow detail without affecting the midtowns or highlights. I’ve came to the conclusion that it will take a combination of settings to do this.
Test Results
In a recent test I found that a combination of HDR Range Minus and HDR Range Plus can lift the shadow detail and bring GCam closer to the look and feel of the Asus camera.
The examples below show the same scene taken with the Asus camera, the darker looking GCam V1.6 (plus xml), and the GCam with custom HDR Range Minus “-4” and HDR Range Plus “4” settings to brighten the shadows. I'll be using this setting over the next few weeks in different situations to see if it can be improved.
I noticed a peculiar effect in the Asus Camera’s shot: The sun is high in the sky towards the left side of the building - in the GCam shots the sky in this area is almost white. In the Asus shot the sky behind the building appears to have been over processed to make it a much darker, and this looks quite artificial in the area I've marked in red. The GCam sky has a more natural appearance.
If you have found other ways to improve the quality of the GCam compared to the Zenphone 8’s camera I be happy if you could share examples and details here. Thanks.
Tom100% said:
The examples below show the same scene taken with the Asus camera, the darker looking GCam V1.6 (plus xml), and the GCam with custom HDR Range Minus “-4” and HDR Range Plus “4” settings to brighten the shadows. I'll be using this setting over the next few weeks in different situations to see if it can be improved.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Couple of settings i have seen in other xml setups.
HDR range Minus
-0,375
HRD Range Plus
8.5(default) / 10.0 / 11.5
HDR Range Minus
-0.875
HDR Range Plus
8.5(default) / 10.0 / 11.5
I use my phone (not AZ8) on -0.375 / 10.0. I like that shadows is little bit darker but i have to test that -4 / 4 setting
Dayuser said:
Couple of settings i have seen in other xml setups.
HDR range Minus
-0,375
HRD Range Plus
8.5(default) / 10.0 / 11.5
HDR Range Minus
-0.875
HDR Range Plus
8.5(default) / 10.0 / 11.5
I use you my phone (not AZ8) on -0.375 / 10.0. I like that shadows is little bit darker but i have to test that -4 / 4 setting
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Thanks for the information - I'll try out those settings. I found that there are a wide variety of settings that brighten and lighten the shadows but the HDR Range Plus/Minus seem to give the most control.
Edit: I tries out the settings they didn't make much difference. The best results so far I've shared in my latest post: Brightening GCam to match the Asus Camera - 2.
Is there a way to use the Asus Cam on a custom ROM?
I run lineageOS and tried to backup the Asus CAM before wiping the phone via ADB but only got a file with a few kB. Does anyone have a working APK?
flymetothemoon said:
Is there a way to use the Asus Cam on a custom ROM?
I run lineageOS and tried to backup the Asus CAM before wiping the phone via ADB but only got a file with a few kB. Does anyone have a working APK?
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Click to collapse
I don't know about technical things like this, but I do remember reading how the Asus camera couldn't be extracted from the Asus system. Can't remember where I read it, though.
Brightening GCam to match the Asus Camera - 2
I've always preferred the brighter, more punchy look of the Asus Zenfone 8 camera to Wichaya's V1.6 GCam. Unfortunately the Asus shots are over-sharpened and can look somewhat unnatural when viewed on laptop and monitor screens.
Wichaya's GCam does not over-process the images but usually gives darker results, so I've been experimenting with the Ram Patcher settings to try to brighten them up...
In my last post, "Brightening GCam to match the Asus Camera", I listed some Ram Patcher settings that lightened the GCam shadows to try and resemble the Stock Asus Camera. Further experiments have yielded improved results and I've attached samples cropped from 100% enlargements of a few pictures. Those with more subtle highlights are the Gcam shots.
The setting I now use are shown in the Ram Patcher screengrab. I discovered that the HDR Effect Intensity alters the overall contrast of the image and I've adjusted it to give more shadow and highlight detail.
No combination of setting can make GCam shots exactly match the Asus shots since the intense computational processing that goes on under the hood is different. But I like these GCam shots and for me they provide a good alternative to the Asus shots.
I now use Asus for general/family pictures and GCam (RAW+Jpg) for more important or creative shots that I might process afterwards.
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Reviews I've seen about the Asus Zenfone 9 camera indicate that it still over-sharpens the images. Hopefully Asus might provide some setting to reduce this in future upgrades.
Asus and Gcam Night shots, in-depth comparison
I’ve been having another look at pictures taken at night with the Asus stock camera and the Wichaya GCam on my Zenfone 8. The results can vary a lot between the two cameras, particularly if there are large areas of dimly lit shadows.
The Asus camera over-sharpens fine detail which gives pictures taken during the day or at night an over-processed appearance. Viewed on a phone they look great, but when viewed on larger screens they can look a little unreal. GCam applies less sharpening - pictures look good on phones and have a more natural appearance on larger screens. Which you prefer is personal preference.
Asus vs GCam Night Shots
The difference between pictures taken at night with the GCam and Asus cameras is more pronounced than in daylight shots. You can view the attached examples to judge for yourself…
I sometimes use the Asus Night camera for general shots in low light. I can access it quickly (using Zenfone shortcuts) to capture fleeting moments. But when I have the opportunity to take a more artistic or creative shot at night I will use the GCam HDR+ Enhanced mode. This is set to capture jpg and dng files together - the jpg looks sharp and accurately exposed, and if I want the very best quality I can edit the dng files later.
The quality of the edited GCam Night mode dng is almost as good but it has a longer "hold still" time, so it's not my first choice for quality and convenience.
The Night Sight mode can also be used for daylight shots but it still doesn't give any sharper or more detailed result than the HDR+ Enhanced mode. The edited dng files from both look just the same, so the HDR+ Enhanced mode is still the best choice.
However in very extreme low light situations I may try the GCam Night Sight mode, which has the longest "hold still" time. But so far I’ve been happy with the quality achieved by the HDR+ Enhanced option.
The examples are from the central area of the picture to make comparisons easier...
I”m using
Wichaya's 8.1 v1.6: GCam_8.1.101_Wichaya_V1.6
Wichaya-8.1.101-ZF8-amrazing33.xml
The HDR+ modes and Ram Patcher settings are shown in the screenshots.
In GCam Settings I have the Multiframe HDR+ Enhanced set to Very High.
Did someone try night sky photos?
I could not get good star photos with gcam, but with Asus cam they look decent.
Hello
For different reasons, I had to upgrade my vanilla S20 to vanilla S23 (though I was not entirely convinced to).
Although the phone runs incredibly smooth, the battery life is amazing, screen is the best I've ever seen, the most important phone aspect for me is the camera video and photo quality, especially during the daytime.
Videos are amazing from S23 and way better than S20's, especially in terms of stabilization.
However, the daylight photos, from all cameras leaves A LOT to be desired. No matter what photo is it - well lit room, landscape, greenery, plants, moving objects, from both main and Telephoto camera are noticeably WORSE than from S20 during daytime.
Photos are noisy as hell, does not have that much details and has too much oversharpening applied. Even using fake 1,1 "tele" lens from S20, the resolved details during the daytime are just better on S20, on all available zoom ranges. Oversharpening on S23 is so strong that it literally kills some finest details sometimes and makes all photos look artificial and unnatural. S20 photos, compared to S23 look as if it S20 was from far future compared to S23.
I am incredibly disappointed as I was expecting A LOT more from phone of that kind. S20 photos are just amazing and I expected something either similar or better.
Is there any way to reduce the oversharpening and smoothen the photos so that they are not that noisy? Or maybe force S20's camera algorithms to S23?
Expert RAW is a no go for me as it takes too much time to play with to take photo. It also processes these photos too much.
Thanks,
Maciej
I came from pixel 7 and I am also dissaponted a lot from the camera although I wouldn't say my photos have noise. It's this Overusaturation that Samsung does( I have turned off scene optimizer) that gets on my nerves. Also night photos are not good. I'm thinking of switching back to pixel.
Download the Camera Assistant software from the Galaxy Store. There you can adjust the softening of your images.
vzsolti said:
Download the Camera Assistant software from the Galaxy Store. There you can adjust the softening of your images.
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I have it and I see only option for automatic hdr and where to give priority, speed or quality
Is there a Google cam available?
ermacwins said:
Is there a Google cam available?
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There is: https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/gcam-port.4553443/
vzsolti said:
Download the Camera Assistant software from the Galaxy Store. There you can adjust the softening of your images.
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Click to collapse
Wow, thank you for reply!
I've been looking for something like this, although I'm not entirely convinced if there are enough options regarding eg. noise. Nevertheless, I will surely try it out and share my findings
Kindest regards,
Maciej
I have played with the Camera Assistant app and it helped a little bit indeed, but the quality is still far from perfect.
No matter what "Smoothening" level I select, there is still visible noise, but more or less "smudged" based on "Smoothening" settings. Finest details are also lost when any "Smoothening" is enabled (even the medium option).
Although there is some visible changes with Camera Assistant, I still preffer S20's photos as they are both detailed and noise-free.
I hope Samsung improves the Camera, because this is not what people should expect from the top tier Android flagships. Too bad is that March security patch does NOT include any Camera improvements.
You can also try to switch off Scene Optimizer or use Pro mode to take photos
Benoe said:
You can also try to switch off Scene Optimizer or use Pro mode to take photos
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Thank you for your reply.
Scene optimizer has been off since I first launched the camera. On pro mode the results are moreless the same - very noisy and tons of artificial oversharpening.
I've had an opportunity to compare my shots from last year's S22. I think there is less noise from S22 shots, so I believe this will get fixed by Samsung in the near future. BTW - S22's photos are still worse than my old S20's and that's the major reason I decided not to purchase S22 year ago.
I shoot and edit in RAW/DNG only. I like the S23 photo compared to my S21 phone.
Do you use Pro mode then?
Hi,
I have the same issue, as per the flagship tag, the photo quality is not that much great I would say.
Usually people taking photos just point and shoot no other special settings changes.
This camera taking 2 to 3MB picture with 12MP camera but too much noise and little blurry as well.
When I switch to 50MP 3:4mode then picture is capturing little sharpen as compared to the above 12MP camera, but it has very large size of picture around 8 to 12MB.
Even banana shape are also capturing specially on humans head.
I'm very disappointed with the camera.
If I talk about overall phone except camera then this is the best phone I have ever seen.
I don't know why every YouTuber is telling lie to us in camera department, they are saying camera is much better then the iPhone or Pixel but the real truth is this phone has very poor camera specially while capturing the photos.
My brother have Realme 9pro+ and he has taken photos on my daughter's birthday and I have taken also and I'm surprised when I saw the quality of his phone's camera photo, very sharp, no noise good quality and size is also not that much.
Thinking to buy pixel 7 or some other flagship kind of phone in exchange of this S23 because I don't this so Samsung will push the camera update on this as they are very much focused on 23ultra and they have bought every YouTuber mouth as well.
I'm very happy with the camera quality so far. This month we should receive a major camera update and it will get only better with time. I have compared the gcam output with the Samsung camera app and gcam is significantly worse. And yes I have used the config file as described.
I truly hope this match update will indeed improve the quality of the camera as this is simply bad now.
Moreover - I have also found many other issues as I keep using my S23 as a daily driver.
First - the video stabilization simply does not work. It did work once released and it was actually one of major improvements that made me amazed, but it seems like february (or march) security patch has simply destroyed this feature. The videos are completely without ANY kind of stabilization.
Second - I have noticed that the Super Slow Motion mode has a HUGE step back when compared to S20. I love this feature as this allows you, without any professional hardware, to capture interesting physical phenomenoms using just your phone, such as lighting up the lighter, break the glass/ice, or even see how the little bees' wings work. These kind of videos have always been unique to Samsung and I find them extremely interesting and I'm a huge fan of these.
While S20 did capture the real 960 frames for 1 second (quite a long of time for a smartphone), S23 captures only half a second and... it's certainly NOT 960 FPS, but rather 480 FPS artificially enriched to 960 FPS by the software.
The effect is that you can't see all the phenomenoms - bees are wingless, the glass breaks unnaturally (you clearly see it's more AI work than actual capture). I'm terribly disappointed.
Honestly I doubt this upcoming March camera patch will solve that many issues and I'm extremely disappointed that 1000 EUR phone is such a garbage in terms of camera. I agree with @Normas Interruptor
If I talk about overall phone except camera then this is the best phone I have ever seen.
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But the truth is that you can charge your battery if it's empty, you can still use the phone if it lag sometimes, you can play the games if you don't have full details. But you can't repair damaged and bad photo. Period.